In Yibin, the tradition of "inviting guests to spring banquets" is being carried out, inviting everyone to jointly partake in the "feast" of new - quality productivity.
On the Chinese New Year's Eve in 2026, when hundreds of millions of viewers watched the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, they were amazed to see rows of robotic dogs and humanoid robots pouring drinks gracefully and even performing spinning flips at the Yibin, Sichuan branch venue.
This was not only a folk performance of the "Spring Wine Invitation", but also like an "invitation letter" from the first city along the Yangtze River.
After that, many tourists, with the "invitation" from the Spring Festival Gala and yearning for the "City of Thousand - Year - Old Wine" and the "Capital of Power Batteries", flocked to the "New City of Artificial Intelligence". According to the cultural and tourism data of Yibin, during the Spring Festival holiday, Yibin received a total of 9.5326 million tourists, a year - on - year increase of 14.76%; and achieved a tourism consumption of 6.206 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 20.21%. In addition, Ctrip data showed that tourists from outside Sichuan accounted for 52.7% of the total tourists to Yibin.
In fact, before the Spring Festival Gala, Yibin had already welcomed a continuous stream of entrepreneurs. The "feast" of new - quality productivity represented by new energy and AI was no less popular than the peak of cultural and tourism during the Spring Festival, and it had higher value and stronger sustainability.
In recent years, Yibin has continuously laid out the "blue and green" industrial tracks. The green new - energy industries mainly including power batteries, crystalline silicon photovoltaics, and new - type energy storage have taken shape and achieved results. The embodied intelligence industry of "Yibin - Made" showcased at the Spring Festival Gala is one of the new blue oceans of the digital economy targeted by Yibin. In 2025 alone, Yibin signed 13 high - value - added embodied intelligence projects such as Dreame, Shenshi Weisheng, and Yiyou Zhikong, with a total agreed investment of 8.45 billion yuan. By building a closed - loop ecosystem of "data - scenario - fund - manufacturing", Yibin's embodied intelligence industry is rising rapidly.
The First Spring Wine: A Stunning Debut, a Leap from "Exhibition Piece" to "Production Line"
On February 10, just a few days before the live broadcast of the Spring Festival Gala, the first product of the MOVA Yibin Manufacturing Base in the Dreame ecosystem was officially rolled off the production line. According to the plan, this base with a total investment of 4.3 billion yuan will bear more than one - third of MOVA's global production capacity in the future, aiming for an annual output of one million units and an annual output value of 2 billion yuan. When MOVA first settled in the Zpark Zero - Carbon Industrial Park in Yibin, Zhao Xiaotian, the deputy general manager of the MOVA ecosystem, was full of expectations for the Yibin project. He said: "Let 'Yibin - Made' become a synonym for both high - quality and green and low - carbon." At present, the Dreame Group has registered 10 companies in the Yibin High - tech Zone, with a rich product line ranging from sweeping robots to agricultural robots and even mining robots.
If Dreame values Yibin's manufacturing capabilities, then Galaxy Universal has laid a strategic chess piece for the future here. In September last year, the Southwest Embodied Intelligence Training Center jointly built by Galaxy Universal and Yibin was put into use.
Walking into the Galaxy Universal Robot Production Base in Yibin Sanjiang New Area, there is no noise of a traditional factory. Instead, there is a rhythmic waving sound of robotic arms and a quiet feeling of data flow. The Galbot G1 humanoid robot produced here is the "star" that sparked heated discussions on the Spring Festival Gala stage.
Of course, the Spring Festival Gala is just a microcosm of the strength of embodied intelligence technology. The real test is on the production line.
Inside the Southwest Embodied Intelligence Training Center, a professional team of nearly a hundred people is concentrating on key problems, and 70 data - collection robots are running day and night. It is also here that the "Robot Retail Space Capsule" that appeared on the Spring Festival Gala was incubated. Surprisingly, the first prototype of this application was not deployed in Beijing or Shanghai, but was put into operation at Yibin MixC in the Dragon Boat Festival last year.
From the "trial run" in Yibin's shopping malls to the promotion in Beijing and Chengdu, this path clearly shows that Yibin is not only a "display area" for robots, but also a "producer" of core data and an "experimental field" for business models. Within 24 hours after the Spring Festival Gala program was broadcast, Galaxy Universal's Galbot G1 received hundreds of orders with a unit price of 700,000 yuan. The enthusiastic response from the market is undoubtedly the best footnote to Yibin's model of "exchanging scenarios for industries".
The rapid rise of these two enterprises is not an isolated case. Yibin has joined hands with institutions such as CMCC Capital and Jinshajiang United Capital to form 8 special artificial - intelligence funds with a total scale of 3 billion yuan, using capital as a link to attract high - quality enterprises to settle. In 2025, more than 20 robot - whole - machine and parts enterprises such as Westwell Lab and Yiyou Zhikong were invested and settled. This year, it is planned to attract more than 40 similar projects, gradually forming a complete industrial chain of "robot body + key parts + system integration".
From the local supporting of core parts, to the large - scale production of whole machines, and then to the in - depth expansion of scenario applications, Yibin is gradually building a complete embodied intelligence industrial ecosystem.
The Second Spring Wine: The "Blue and Green" Background, the Closed - Loop of "AI - Computing Power - Electricity"
Why choose Yibin?
The cornerstone of all digital economies is energy. Yibin, a city with a history of thousands of years of hydropower, has now become an important green - energy base in China. Relying on the water - resource advantages at the confluence of the Jinsha River, Minjiang River, and Yangtze River, Yibin has built a green - energy system mainly based on hydropower, supplemented by wind power and photovoltaics. At present, the proportion of green electricity in Yibin is extremely high, and its electricity price has a significant competitive advantage nationwide. More importantly, Yibin is building a smart energy system integrating power sources, grids, loads, and energy storage to ensure the stability and economy of enterprises' energy use.
It is this "green - electricity depression" effect that has attracted a large number of new - energy enterprises and data centers sensitive to energy costs to settle in Yibin. CATL has laid out the world's largest power - battery production base in Yibin. Each battery produced here bears the "zero - carbon" gene. And this huge battery production capacity, in turn, provides low - cost and high - performance power support for terminal products such as robots and electric vehicles.
With electricity, computing power is also needed. The explosive growth of artificial intelligence has put forward an almost "greedy" demand for computing power. Yibin has keenly captured this trend and made a large - scale layout of intelligent computing centers.
As early as April 2025, the Yibin Intelligent Computing Center of Shu Ju Castle was officially launched. This project with a total investment of 800 million yuan has a first - phase construction scale of no less than 1000P computing power and an investment of no less than 200 million yuan. After completion, the scale will be no less than 4000P computing power. According to Tan Xiao, the assistant to the CEO of Chengdu Shu Ju Castle Technology Co., Ltd. and the general manager of the Yibin company, 1P computing power means being able to complete 1 quadrillion floating - point operations per second. Generally speaking, 1P computing power is equivalent to the computing power of about 500 high - performance computers. The positioning of the intelligent computing center is not only to cooperate with leading domestic Internet enterprises but also to conveniently serve local government and enterprise units, reducing the computing - power cost. This "computing - power - as - a - service" model has greatly lowered the innovation threshold for small and medium - sized enterprises.
Electricity ensures operation, computing power provides the "brain", and the ultimate value of AI lies in application. And Yibin just has unique scenario advantages.
From government affairs to medical care, Yibin has developed 44 industry - large - model applications, providing rich "experimental fields" for enterprises. These rich application scenarios provide massive training data and iteration opportunities for AI technology. Yibin opens up urban application scenarios and encourages enterprises to "incubate in Yibin and start from Yibin". Galaxy Universal's "space capsule" is a "first - set" demonstration scenario; Dreame Technology's on - site testing in Yibin is a practice of the concept of "the city as a laboratory".
In the Yibin Artificial Intelligence Science and Technology Park (AI - Park), a 400 - mu industrial axis of "Three Valleys and Two Centers" is planned along Jinshajiang Avenue. In July 2025, the first industrial carrier on the industrial axis, the Yibin AI Data Center, was completed and put into use. In just half a year, the occupancy rate reached over 90%. Eight data - service enterprises such as Wende Shuhui and four technology incubators such as Tsinghua Tongfang have settled in, gathering more than 3000 data - service and innovation - entrepreneurship personnel.
Thus, a perfect closed - loop is formed in Yibin: abundant green electricity reduces the computing - power cost, powerful computing power empowers AI algorithms, advanced AI technology drives the manufacturing and application of intelligent terminals (such as robots), and the popularization of intelligent terminals further promotes the consumption of new energy and the intelligence of the power grid.
This "AI - Computing Power - Electricity" golden triangle constitutes the strongest moat for Yibin's new - quality productivity.
The Third Spring Wine: "Three - Track Progress", Precise Positioning of the AI Industrial Ecosystem
The prosperity of an industry is inseparable from the precise guidance and efficient service of the government. The role of the Yibin government in industrial development has changed from the traditional "manager" to the "partner" and "service provider". And the most precise positioning of this city stems from the far - sighted strategic concept and steady - paced tactical approach of the Yibin government.
In the wave of the rapid development of artificial intelligence, every city is actively laying out. Yibin has deeply analyzed its geographical advantages and industrial ecosystem. Limited by industrial foundation, innovation elements, and talent support, Yibin does not have the conditions to undertake the two core technologies of algorithms and chips. Therefore, it has firmly focused on the development of "3 key applications". Based on its urban level and industrial characteristics, it has identified three main tracks: the embodied intelligence hardware ecosystem and data collection, industry - large - model applications, and the standardized manufacturing of computing - power infrastructure (AIDC). It has laid out key links suitable for the local area and focused on strengthening cooperation with leading enterprises to form an industrial ecosystem.
Yibin's pragmatic strategy of "three - track progress" does not blindly pursue the "pearl" at the forefront of technology. Instead, relying on its solid manufacturing foundation, precise industrial entry point, and efficient government service, it has found its own ecological niche at the intersection of new energy and artificial intelligence.
From the national - strategy level, computing - power infrastructure is rapidly evolving into an important driving force for the macro - economy. After China breaks through the limitations of chip technology, there will also be an explosion in the construction of computing - power infrastructure. Computing power is the pioneer in the competition of artificial intelligence. Yibin is located at the national computing - power hub node of the "East - to - West Computing" project. In the Ecological and Technological Innovation Park (E - Park) in the south area of the high - speed railway, more than 80 digital - economy enterprises such as NetEase, Tencent, and Thunder are gathered, and it will undertake the computing - power needs of more leading enterprises in the future.
From the perspective of local industrial advantages, the embodied intelligence industry needs to take into account hardware manufacturing. Power batteries and core parts of new - energy vehicles are key components of robots. As the core area of power batteries in Sichuan and even the whole country, in 2025, the production and sales of the power - battery sector in Yibin accounted for about 15% of the national total and 11% of the global total, with the scale of the entire industrial chain reaching 125 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 18.1%. It naturally has the foundation to undertake and develop this industry. At the same time, in 2025, the total industrial output value of Yibin's crystalline silicon photovoltaic industry reached 37 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 28.5%, ranking first in the province. Coupled with the rapid rise of the new - type energy - storage industry, in February this year, with the start of the cell - manufacturing base in the Yibin Energy - Storage Industrial Park, the gap in the key link of energy - storage cells in Yibin will be filled.
From the perspective of the business environment, industry - large models can deeply empower government management, grass - roots governance, urban operation, and other fields. The city spirit of Yibin to "strive for the upper reaches" has created the "Yibin speed" of economic development and the "Yibin sample" of government - enterprise interaction. From project signing to start - up, from construction to production, the whole process implements the "agent system" and "commitment system". As a medium - sized city, Yibin has the comparative advantage of coordinating the city - wide scenario resources to develop industry - large - model applications and also has the institutional guarantee to provide the best service for enterprises.
The right time has come, the geographical advantages are available, and the people are united.
Driven by leading enterprises, Yibin's artificial - intelligence industry shows a booming cluster effect.
According to the goal of "taking shape in three years and being fully established in five years", the Yibin Artificial Intelligence Science and Technology Park will be fully completed by 2028. At the same time, after three to five years of efforts, 3 - 5 data - service enterprises with a scale of more than a thousand people and more than 5 leading enterprises in the embodied intelligence industry will be attracted and cultivated, achieving an output value of 10 - 15 billion yuan, and basically forming an artificial - intelligence industrial ecosystem covering data applications, hardware manufacturing, computing - power infrastructure, and other fields.
In the wave of chasing artificial intelligence, most cities are in a state of anxiety: they long to stand at the forefront of the trend but suffer from the lack of scientific - research endowments of first - tier cities. The reason why Yibin's exploration is worthy of attention is not how many star enterprises it has introduced, but that it provides a problem - solving idea of "asymmetric competition". When leading cities are in a close - combat in the "deep - water area" of algorithms and chips, Yibin has clearly chosen its own "value anchor point": not to be the "brain", but to be the "body"; not to compete for the peak